Zombie processes left after each git command which interacts with remote repo

[bitme345]

git commands which require interaction with remote repo leaves zombie proceses. 1 process per each git command.

docker exec -it repro ps -o pid,ppid,stat,tty,args

PID   PPID  STAT TT     COMMAND
    1     0 S    ?      npm start
   18     1 S    ?      {MainThread} node dist/index.js
   39     1 Z    ?      [git]
   45     1 Z    ?      [git]
   57     1 Z    ?      [git]
   63     1 Z    ?      [git]
  154     0 R    136,0  ps -o pid,ppid,stat,tty,args

Minimal reproducible example

Observed when running in node:24-alpine docker image
Does not happen in MacOS

simple-git version 3.28.0

[Koltou]

I can confirm this issue is also present on my machine, when using node:20-alpine docker image.

[Koltou]

For anyone interested in a temporary fix, migrating your docker image from an alpine linux image to a debian one should fix the issue.

As for the bug it might not be that useful but i found out the following details :

• Read commands will generate only 1 zombie no matter how many time they are executed.
• Write commands will generate n zombies depending on how many n the write command is executed.

[dmaizel]

I experience the same issue (on Debian images). Any plans to fix it anytime soon?

[apowers313]

simple-git is forking and running the git command underneath. Many docker images do not have an init process that waits for child processes to exit to clean them up, meaning that any executed process will become a zombie. More details here: https://docs.docker.com/reference/cli/docker/container/run/#init

Not sure if this is your root cause, but you may want to run your docker image with the --init flag or add init: true to your compose file and see if that fixes the problem.